Property Description

This home features a great southern exposure with spectacular views of farmland, a mountain ridge and a mature pine forest. The loft bedroom has abundant natural light and storage space. Radiant heat tubes are installed in the beautiful burgundy red cement slab floor. The kitchen features custom cement counters and cherry cabinets. The bathroom has a jetted bath tub. Other features include an earth tube ventilation system for air exchange, beams milled from trees cleared from site, interior finished with natural plaster. Includes rustic cabin for potential studio or guest house.

What makes your home a Green or Healthy Home?

This home was built using a structural kit from Performance Building Systems (PBS), based in Durango, Colorado. PBS owner, Gene Pearcy states, \"Earth shelters are very efficient. A well-insulated above-grade home is influenced by outside air temperature, whether the heat of summer or the cold of winter, and is aggravated by wind chill factors. An earth shelter has much less direct, unsheltered, outside exposure, hence less energy requirements. In addition, an earth-sheltered home enjoys the benefits of a large thermal mass. The concrete foundation and shell are surrounded by \"free\" earth (often the same earth that was excavated for the foundation). This earth provides a very large thermal mass at little added cost. This thermal mass soaks up and stores the energy that stabilizes interior living temperatures at a comfortable level - eliminating temperature swings. A conventional house may be subjected to outside temperatures ranging from the teens or lower, up to 100 degrees over the course of a year. An earth-sheltered home\'s large thermal mass forms an envelope around the home that will stabilize at about 55 degrees on its own. Imagine a conventional house where it was always 55 degrees outside... How much easier would that house be to heat in the winter? How much easier to cool in the summer?\" rnrnAdditionally, this home uses Passive Annual Heat Storage (PAHS).rnJohn Hiat of the Rocky Mountain Research Center in Montana described what he calls Umbrella Homes. \"A simple underground house design uses a novel insulating/water-shedding blanket that covers the structure and surrounding soil. The umbrella creates a huge subterranean thermal reservoir that soaks up the sun’s energy during summertime and stores it for winter heating. In many cases, the clever design makes a heating system unnecessary.\"rnrnAn Earth tube ventilation system is used for temperature adjusted air exchange. The beams are milled from trees cleared from the house site. The interior is finished with natural plaster and is sealed with natural waxes. The furnace is 97% efficient. The house is sound-proofed as a result of the earth & cement structure. The exterior is low maintenance. The windows were purchased new from the Mid-Hudson Materials Exchange.

Neighborhood Description

The area is rural. The home is built on a wooded hillside overlooking a dairy farm.

Market Area

100 miles North of New York City. 80 miles sounth of Albany. Historic Hudson Valley. Adjacent to Catskill Mountains and the Shawangunk Ridge. Close to great trails. Minutes from the village of Stone Ridge and the college town of New Paltz.